Real estate developer Linda Famie from Princeton inherited two parcels of land in Little Egg Harbor Township and the expertise to shop it from her developer father. She has been courting Great Wolf Lodge Inc. to buy her 68 acres next to Walmart on Route 9, she told Mayor Bobbi Jo Crea and the township committee during their municipal meeting on Thursday, Jan. 10.

Famie said the bank had taken back the land adjoining Cranberry Creek, but she had plans for the 63 acres that abut Otis Bog Road.

However, she claims when Committeeman Ray Gormley was mayor (2017 and ’18), he never returned her phone calls and refused to meet with her while she was in negotiations with Great Wolf.

Great Wolf runs 16 family resorts that include an indoor water park as an attraction.

Famie said when Gene Kobryn was mayor (2016), he was cooperating with her and her plans for Great Wolf. She said there was a $70 million ERB grant available. (The Energy Resilience Block grant through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief was adopted after Superstorm Sandy to make energy sources resilient). She claims to have had three or four meetings with Kobryn, Township Engineer Jason Worth and state officials from the Department of Environmental Protection. But after Kobryn lost his bid for re-election, Famie said, she could no longer get anyone to contact her.

“This would be, probably, the best thing we ever had to come to Little Egg Harbor, and we may have lost it,” Famie said. Great Wolf was “not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling. “I’m furious. I spent two years on this and you wouldn’t give me the courtesy of a call back?

“The project sunsets in June,” she said. “There’s no one running to Little Egg Harbor. There’s nothing here.”

Crea said the township has a new Commercial Revitalization Committee that Famie could attend.

Gormley asked if he could respond to Famie, “as this is clearly targeted at me.”

“The town’s professionals represent us. … This township has recently taken steps to put in place a town center with designated water and sewer. The town has done all the necessary steps to get things in place for these types of ratables.

“It is inappropriate for us to sit and talk with a land owner who wants to bring a project forward to the planning board,” he continued. “It’s inappropriate for us (elected officials) to sit and negotiate.”

Famie said that in the world she knows, that’s what officials do. “What any large organization wants is a community that’s not fighting them. They want a mayor, the political head of a community to write a letter (of support). It’s not making a deal with anyone. I asked you to be in on a conference call (when you were) mayor, just to hear you say you were interested – let’s make it happen, get a conversation going with Great Wolf. That’s what all the communities do.”

Famie said a rural community, LaGrange, Ga., spent $24 million to entice Great Wolf to come into its town, a suburb of Atlanta.

“For them to get this close, and poof – now I think they are going to Baltimore.”

Deputy Mayor John Kehm said he sat on the Economic Development Committee three years ago when Famie was asking for financial help to hire a consultant for the project. “Why should Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor put out money if it’s your land?”

Famie said that was a different project he was alluding to, and the consultant she hired for Great Wolf was paid out of her own pocket.

“We would love to have Great Wolf ,but we have to have willing partners,” said Kehm. “Great Wolf has not contacted our planning or zoning departments.”

“They don’t do that; communities court them,” said Famie.

Gormley said he had done his homework, and Great Wolf had also considered Bader Field and Great Adventure besides Little Egg.

“The state’s incentive plan sunsets in June,” he added. “Where is the applicant? They could come in informally (to the planning board). It needs planning board approval, it needs CAFRA (Coastal Area Facilities Review Act) approval, it needs DOT access approval and any number of environmental approvals. We don’t know the specifics of that site. I can’t do the wetlands determination.”

“All I needed was a letter that Little Egg Harbor was interested,” said Famie. “What does the township need? A new fire department, a baseball field?

“These people don’t need you, you need them,” said Famie.

Famie also said she would be increasing surveillance at the site because it’s a liability issue to allow folks to use the land as they do now, for dirt biking.

The land is the site of a former asphalt plant, Gormley said. “It’s never been cleaned up, and she wants us to do it for her,” he said after the meeting.

— Pat Johnson

[email protected]

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